Mammoth's 325 A.G.E. Build

[Rouselb]

I was talking with them about using a steel reinf that is powder coated for the top of the tank. This would maximize the cutouts. I was worried about moisture and salt getting onto the eurobrace and blocking a good portion of the light.

 

[Black Mammoth]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14689865#post14689865 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rouselb
I was talking with them about using a steel reinf that is powder coated for the top of the tank. This would maximize the cutouts. I was worried about moisture and salt getting onto the eurobrace and blocking a good portion of the light.

Why don't you do a big opening like I have? Then you don't have to worry about the moisture and salt blocking light. The brace is a the edge and you won't have lights there anyway.

 

[jlw63]

I'm wondering how you got AGE to actually build a tank for you. I tried to order a 8' x 3' x 3' tank all fall and could never get Tom to call or email me or my LFS back. Very disappointing. I had had a similar sized Glass Cages tank that broke last June and talked with Tom 2 times in the summer about what I wanted. By the time I got my fish-room dried out (540 gallons on the floor made for a very stinky mess!) and refurbished and was ready to order (about September), Tom had taken his phone number off the website. I called AGE several time over the fall. My LFS called several times. We emailed. I sent him the plans I had drawn. NEVER HEARD A WORD FROM TOM. It was sort of mystifying. Finally last month I ordered the tank from Coast to Coast aquariums and it ships next week.

 

[Black Mammoth]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14704858#post14704858 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jlw63
I'm wondering how you got AGE to actually build a tank for you. I tried to order a 8' x 3' x 3' tank all fall and could never get Tom to call or email me or my LFS back. Very disappointing. I had had a similar sized Glass Cages tank that broke last June and talked with Tom 2 times in the summer about what I wanted. By the time I got my fish-room dried out (540 gallons on the floor made for a very stinky mess!) and refurbished and was ready to order (about September), Tom had taken his phone number off the website. I called AGE several time over the fall. My LFS called several times. We emailed. I sent him the plans I had drawn. NEVER HEARD A WORD FROM TOM. It was sort of mystifying. Finally last month I ordered the tank from Coast to Coast aquariums and it ships next week.

Kind of weird. I'm sorry to hear about that. I got a quote in the fall, but decided to hold off for a couple months. I was going to order in Dec/Jan, but I decided to see if my LFS could order one. I gave them the contact info (website...maybe a number). I got a quote the next day. I know for awhile after that people had trouble. My understanding is that they got a big order and they were really busy. Still no excuse IMHO. I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience. Mine has been OK. There have been a few times that we couldn't get a hold of them. My tank should be here on April 10th. It could be here earlier, but that's when I can have people help (the 12th).

 

[Rouselb]

I have been talking to AGE for months and they are very slow, even kingfish who is the LFS im dealing with. You should check out Miracles. They have great communication and the tanks are sweet. I have been talking with them also, and they respond the same day, give you all the info they can, just really easy to work with. Derek is the man to talk to.

 

[Black Mammoth]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14715971#post14715971 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rouselb
I have been talking to AGE for months and they are very slow, even kingfish who is the LFS im dealing with. You should check out Miracles. They have great communication and the tanks are sweet. I have been talking with them also, and they respond the same day, give you all the info they can, just really easy to work with. Derek is the man to talk to.

Yeah. I got a quote from Miracles, but they quoted me something I didn't ask for. I didn't want any holes drilled and they had them in there. It was also 2x as much A.G.E. and AO. Maybe they sent me the wrong quote, but either case I wasn't terribly impressed.

 

[Rouselb]

That's weird. They quoted the same tank for me and the cost was almost identical.

 

[Black Mammoth]

Russ at Buckeye Field Supply was kind enough to answer a lot of questions I had about RO systems and water in general. Well today I received my goodies to beef up my system. Everything looks good. I ordered two additional canisters and those things are beefy! I got one to do an extra layer of sediment filtering and another one to replace my horizontal DI canisters. Hopefully the new filters and setup will work better. The old system did a great job, but I was going through filters faster at my new place.

The tank should be here in 1 week (Friday). Tuesday I'm going to get confirmation on the day that works best for my movers (aka Fire Department). They'll stop by either Saturday or Sunday.

I still need to finish drywall and FRP! This is going to be a race....hopefully I'll win Anyway, the pictures will start coming in soon.

 

[paulthomas]

Re: Mammoth's 325 A.G.E. Build

I can't wait to see this tank. Very nice. BTW, what's in these water containers?

Thanks,
Paul

 

[erics3000]

Jumping aboard

 

[Black Mammoth]

Hi Paul,

Those containers were used for dosing my 90g with Randy's two part solution. It worked great and was MUCH MUCH cheaper than the Bionic that I was using

Eric,

Welcome aboard! You are about to get a HUGE update here

 

[Black Mammoth]

Well, well, well...where to begin? So much has happened since the last update. The last 3 days or so has been so hectic. I guess first I would like to start and thank Sean & Angelique at Fins & Feathers. Both have gone WAY ABOVE what anyone should have to do to make sure things happen and go right. Literally, I don't even have the words to describe how thankful and every thing that they did for me. I'm still amazed at what they did for me. You'll read it further down here and I plan on posting in the vendor experience forum.

Apparently, Tom at A.G.E. has been experiencing some growing pains. Well those growing pains caused a lack of communication and a bit of frustration. Both Sean & Angelique were calling and emailing like 10 times a day without getting a response. The problem was the tank was done, but we were trying to get it delivered. I let Sean know the date I wanted it delivered about 2.5 weeks before delivery. I figured this would be more than enough time to get it up here. Well Angelique left a very convincing message to get in contact with us. I also called and left an email. After that, Tom was VERY responsive and did a great job to make things right. I truly believe that the lack of communication was due to growing pains. Tom and I had some email discussions and he explained some things and sent me of a picture of a new machine he got that caused him to shut down shop for a couple days. It's pretty impressive. Anyway, I would definitely order from A.G.E. again. I feel that his growing pains will subside, his professional and quick response, and the quality of the tank will make me a repeat customer. Anyway, it was very important that the tank came on time, Friday April 10th because my crew (Fire Department) was scheduled to show up Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather. I was also renting some suction cups for the tank.

Well Tom got it shipped out so it would be here on Wednesday April 8th. So I left work early thinking it was coming. It didn't show, but I wasn't too disappointed and figured it would be here the next day on Thursday. So I took off from work and decided to work on applying FRP to the drywall. (Yes, the drywall is done, pics below, sorry I didn't post earlier). Anyway, it didn't show up. It looked like it was stuck in NC, but later on I saw it in transit. I later got a call from Estes Express, the shipping company, asking a time to setup for delivery for tomorrow. It was agreed that it would show up somewhere between 11 and 3. So that meant I had to also take Friday off because the tank would be here. I take Friday off and I get a phone call at 10:52 telling me that delivery would have to be rescheduled for Monday because the driver needed additional help. I told them it had to come today and it then became a big hassle. They tried telling me it wasn't marked as needed a lift gate and being residential. I knew that wasn't true as I had the receipt sitting in front of me. Then they said it was too late to get out to me because all of the drivers were out. They said if they could get it to me, I would need to hold like 4 to 5 feet of it because it would fit completely on the lift gate. I was frantically trying to call people to see if they could help. I called Sean and he took care of things. He called up Estes Express and got them to make a special delivery to me (even though it shouldn't have been), but we still needed people. Sean said he would come over and bring someone to help out with the people I had coming. I couldn't believe that he would do that. So another thank you goes out to Sean and his friend CJ. Anyway, the truck shows up a little early and the guy gets the ENTIRE tank on the lift gate and brings it down the driveway. He got it on the ground before my friends and Sean could show up. No one was needed which was great, but it was a bit annoying that it was stressful and through off my plans for the day because of the shipping company. We have some theories on why it happened this way, but it isn't important as I got the tank and they did all the work. The driver even moved the tank inside my garage with his pallet jack. Pretty sweet.

So lets go back a few days. I got the "drywall" (HardiBacker) done. Here are a few pics:

Left Side Wall

Under The Stairs

Right Side Wall

So the next step is to get the FRP up. At a bare minimum, I need the walls and hole lined with FRP so we can get the tank in. We got all of the FRP up except for the left side wall and back wall, but neither are needed for the tank to come in. Here are some pics of the installed FRP.
FRP On The Right Wall (and ceiling) With Dehumidistat

FRP Under The Stairs

FRP Around The Viewing Portal

I'll be posting a follow up with the delivery and the stand here shortly...

 

[Black Mammoth]

So yesterday, the tank was delivered after some grief. Anyway, A.G.E. did an AWESOME job crating the tank up. The crate was VERY well constructed and easy to take apart. My dad, friends, Sean and I were impressed by the crate. We knew that the tank was going to be awesome just because of the create

Anyway, here are some pictures. I won't post them all, but there are still a lot of pictures.

Here is the tank and stand on the lift gate. It took the guy about 5 minutes of maneuvering to get the stand on the lift gate:

Here is a picture of the bad boy in my garage still in the crate:

Now time for the tank pictures. This is the best looking tank I've ever seen. I even believe I heard Sean say this is the best built tank he has ever seen. It was definitely worth the wait! There was a brief moment that I thought Sean might try to sneak off with the tank LOL

Here's a pic of the back side of the tank. Notice that there is a cover on top of the overflow box. I was very impressed. I didn't know/realize that Tom was going to put that in there. It's very cool. He also made the back side of the tank black which is awesome. He even provided an black insert for the overflow to hide the overflow.

Now here is a pic of the overflow. The top of the overflow is off and resting on the top of the tank. It's a bit dusty, but that's the cover above it.

Here is looking at the overflows through the front of the tank:

Too many pictures....another post is coming with the rest of the pictures....

 

[Black Mammoth]

Continued....

Here is the right end:

Here is the left end:

Here are some pics of the stand because it is also very cool

Another update is coming up shortly...

 

[Black Mammoth]

So I have some good news and bad news. Good news is that the Fire Department is showing up tomorrow after church to move the tank from the garage to the basement and up on to the stand. The other good news is that my friend and I put the stand in the final location and we were able to make it level. I'll recheck the level again after the tank is the stand. The bad news is that I realized that I made a mistake on my side viewing portal. I can't believe that I messed it up. Actually, it wasn't just the portal, but the front wall as well. I measured incorrectly. I forgot to take in account for the width of the bar and and decking on the stand. I'm really mad about it because I asked Sean to get me the exact dimensions so I know exactly how to make my cuts. I checked them several times, but apparently I fell asleep at the wheel so to speak. I made the appropriate adjustments, but now the side affect is going to be that the side viewing portal will only have 24" of vertical viewing instead of 25.5". So it could have been worse. I'm just so angry with myself. It would have been one thing to not think about it and have it happen. It just burns me up knowing that I was specifically watching for this and I still messed it up. Eh, I'm only missing 1.5" of vertical viewing on the side panel, not that big of a deal. You'll see the mistake in the second picture. I'll add additional oak on the bottom to fix it. I was already planning on using a wide trim piece to enclose the portal. It might look like the stand isn't level in the second picture, but it is. My portal isn't level; I checked it. Somehow it got messed up. I think I can trace back to the day I installed it. I had it level, but I had to do something and pull it out and reinstall it. I probably forgot to check it when I was reinstalling it. Again, not that big of a deal, but a bit annoying. I can hide it and no one will ever know

Anyway, here are two pics with the stand in place and level. It's ready for the tank.

This is my last update for now. I'll post some pictures of the tank being moved and installed after the guys show up tomorrow to do it

 

[Black Mammoth]

I'm pleased to tell everyone that the tank made it down the stairs and on to the stand. The fire department did an excellent job! I have a lot of pictures and I tried pairing them down for the post. I'm sorry for all the pics. If you are interested in more pictures, you can find them on my photo bucket account. The suction cups were awesome. I would also like to say that I would have helped, but they didn't want it because they work great as a unit. I'll try to give some info about each picture. And yes I built both the sled and ramp. It might not look pretty, but it did a great job. The funniest question I got today was from my mom. "Who told you how to make those? How did you know that you need to make them?" That was referring to the sled and the ramp. I laughed and tried explaining to her that I'm an engineer and that's what I do. I solve problems. It kind of cracked me up; especially since I think that non-engineers would have thought of the same thing. Anyway, I got a kick out of that.

We thought of several different ways of lowering it down. We (the Fire Department) ended up using a belaying system. At first we thought we would use the winch on the Range Rover, but it ended up playing the role of the anchor. You'll see that in a picture below.

Here's the FD showing up!

Here's the ramp for the sled. It was 12' 6" long and stops at the threshold:

Here's the sled to carry the tank. The face of the tank needed to face the sled to get it through the basement door. The sled had about 1/2" of clearance on each side. Obviously, the top was made to keep the tank in the sled. It isn't in this picture, but there is styrofoam on the sled and then I put a very very thick blanket down. It did a very good job.

Here is the crew carrying it out of my garage with the suction cups:

Now the tank is in the backyard. They placed the tank on blankets right before the sled. They are now moving the tank on to the face because that's how it needs to go on to the sled.

Now they are placing it in to the sled. No snow, but the tank will still go

Here is the man belaying the tank down the ramp. You can see his gear. For those that climb, yup, same concept.

Here it is about to go down the ramp:

Post continued below...too many pictures.

 

[Black Mammoth]

Continued....


Thar she goes!

About half way there:

Now it is at the bottom:

I don't have very good pictures of the tank coming through the door, so I'm not going to put any up not unless someone screams for them

Here is the FD preparing to get the tank up on to the stand. I'm in the room making sure it doesn't hit any of the walls or do anything weird.

Here is the tank entering the hole:

So you would expect a final shot, right? You expect the mermaid shot, right? I present you the mermDAD shot :lol: I was telling my parents how it is tradition to get a "mermaid" shot or put your kids in the tank. My wife wasn't too thrilled about it and my dad popped up right away and said that he would do it. A bit to eagerly if you ask me...hmmm....

So we all had a good laugh and my wife was like OK, I guess it is my turn. So here is her reluctant mermaid shot

 

[paulthomas]

MerDAD

MerDAD

There's a first! That's awesome.

 

[paulthomas]

MerDAD

MerDAD

Oops.

 

[paulthomas]

Re: MerDAD

Re: MerDAD

Oops again.